Me, myself, and i - Pesky pronouns: The understudies

Booher's Rules of Business Grammar - Dianna Booher 2009

Me, myself, and i
Pesky pronouns: The understudies

REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS FLEXING THEIR MUSCLES

Somebody somewhere sometime must have told a class of students that the “self” pronouns (reflexive pronouns), such as myself, yourself, and ourselves, sound more elegant or sophisticated than the plain garden variety. Then viral networking took over.

Everywhere you go, you hear incorrect comments such as these:

Incorrect:

Jordan and myself manage that department.

Heather, Tommy, and myself are involved in that meeting.

Why don’t Frank, Sol, and yourself accompany Melinda to Atlanta?

Whatever happened to plain old me? A sentence must contain another noun or pronoun to which this self refers. If I is not already in the sentence, it’s incorrect to add myself. If Susan is not already mentioned in the sentence, then it’s incorrect to stuff herself in there.

Again, leave out the other people, and let your ear do the work. You would never say, “Myself is involved in that meeting.” Neither would you say, “Why don’t yourself accompany Melinda to Atlanta?”

Correct:

Jordan and I manage that department.

Heather, Tommy, and I are involved in that meeting.

Why don’t Frank, Sol, and you accompany Melinda to Atlanta?

A good reason, on the other hand, to toss in a self pronoun is to add emphasis. Consider it a raised voice: “I myself told him about the problem!” (meaning: How could he claim that he doesn’t know about the problem? Certainly he knows because I personally told him!)

Get adamant. Flex your muscle the next time somebody emails you a misused highfaluting —self pronoun when they need only the simple I, or me, or he, or she.

Memory tip

Have you ever heard the line, “I’m so busy that I’m meeting myself coming and going”? That’s a correct usage: myself refers to the I that’s already in the sentence.